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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25862785">Living out a life of royalty</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adoravel_Fenomeno/pseuds/Adoravel_Fenomeno'>Adoravel_Fenomeno</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>KitTy one-shot AUs [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Dark Artifices Series - Cassandra Clare, The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare, The Wicked Powers Series - Cassandra Clare</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, And Kit just pretends to help them, And it's mostly just Kit being a shitty prince, Centurion Anush, Centurion Ty, Have you ever wondered 'what if Rosemary used her first heir lineage to become a Faerie queen?', M/M, This is the answer for it, and being envious of Ash, and crushing on Ty, i love him so much, like he usually does, who's a Centurion that came to Faerie with Anush to solve a murder case</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 07:27:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>7,569</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25862785</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adoravel_Fenomeno/pseuds/Adoravel_Fenomeno</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Kit didn’t mind the royal life. He even liked it, a little bit. That, of course, didn’t mean he was any good at it. When he was assigned to chaperone two Centurions solving a murder case, a crush on one of them and a realization about his Kingdom wasn’t what he expected. It was, however, what he got.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Tiberius Blackthorn &amp; Anush Joshi, Tiberius Blackthorn/Kit Rook</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>KitTy one-shot AUs [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1876717</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>55</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Living out a life of royalty</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Title from the song 'manufactured love' by Michael Bume.</p><p>(Tiny reminder that this is part of a series where I’ll be posting KiTy one-shot AUs twice a week. The next one will be up on Sunday!)</p><p>I hope you enjoy ❤️❤️❤️</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Kit didn’t mind the royal life. He didn’t mind it one bit.</p><p>However, the leaf outfits were excessive. Actually, all the outfits he was supposed to wear were excessive. The vines that composed the bottom half of his crown got his hair all tangled, and his tunic’s natural fabric had activated some sort of allergies he tried to scratch away.</p><p>Looking over his mother’s throne, he found Ash’s eyes and tried to convey his discomfort by gesturing to his chest and making a pouty face. Ash rolled his eyes and turned his head, ignoring his so beloved adopted brother.</p><p>“Kitfer, behave,” ordered his mom while she adjusted her crown that was, like Kit’s, tangling her golden hair.</p><p>“Sorry, my Queen,” he mumbled with as much sarcasm as he could muster.</p><p>As the big doors creaked, all the lighting in the sun-baked room shifted to a darker atmosphere, where the sunshine rays that came from the cracks in the wall were dimmed to an unnatural, almost blue-ish tone.</p><p>Rosemary, the Queen of the New Kingdom, smiled with mischief, and put down her magic-shiny hands, straightening out her flower petal skirt.</p><p>The guards opened the doors and let in a boy in all-black garnets that would make any goth mad with envy. He walked until he was in front of the Queen’s throne, his chin high and his grey eyes focused on one of the tree branches behind her.</p><p>Kit, suddenly very fascinated with that official meeting, immediately perked up and, again, turned to look at Ash, who smirked back at him.</p><p>Kit had lived in the Land under the Hill since he was a little kid, when his mom revealed she was both of Seelie and Unseelie royal lineage and took over the crown of the New Kingdom. Being away from the mundane world for so long made him unused to normal beauty parameters, but, even without the glim, mischief, and pointy ears that the Fair Folk came with, that Shadowhunter was clearly drop-dead gorgeous.</p><p>Seconds after, another herd of guards entered through the door, bringing with them one more black-clad Nephilim.</p><p>Both he and his companion, as they stood in front of the Queen, bowed as all her visitants did. The new Nephilim briefly grabbed the other one’s hand and squeezed it, smiling tentatively.</p><p>“Hello, milady Rosemary,” he said. “We're here in order of the Centurions to check a few cases that have been happening in your Kingdom.”</p><p>Kit’s mom shifted in her seat. “The murder cases, you mean.”</p><p>“Yes, milady. The murder cases. The official order is to just investigate one of them, though. Only the Shadowhunter.” He looked at the other boy next to him, who nodded back and started to fiddle with some wires in his hands. “The Centurions wouldn’t prod into something that isn’t our business. These cases are bothersome to you too, so I’m assuming it could bring some relief to let us solve it.”</p><p>Rosemary snickered. “It’ll only bring me relief if the Nephilim don’t decide to throw the blame on the downworlders as you usually do. If not, it’ll be an even bigger headache.”</p><p>“I’m sorry to inform you, my Queen,” the Nephilim replied carefully, “but this is happening inside your Kingdom. The chances that this isn’t some fey’s fault are very slim. As long as it’s me and Ty who handle it, though, no unjust situations will be happening. I mean, Ty even has half-fey siblings, right?”</p><p>The gorgeous boy, Ty, elbowed him in the ribs, and Kit’s mom stared at them in a mixture of amusement and indignation.</p><p>“Right,” she drawled. “Do you need any sort of answers or favors here? Otherwise, I don’t see why this meeting is remotely necessary.”</p><p>Ty took a step further. “Most of our investigation has lead us to something inside the royal Court, milady. We want permission to investigate further and, if possible, a bit of help while doing it.”</p><p>Oh no. That was… That was not a good view on the Shadowhunters. Kit kind of wanted to laugh, but he didn’t want to upset his mom. Standing in front of the Queen, accusing one of her workers, and then asking for favors was a bold move, Kit couldn’t deny, but bold usually meant incredibly stupid.</p><p>Rosemary already had her head in her hands and her eyes closed in distress. Kit knew that she only hadn’t slapped them in the face because of her attempts of friendship with the Clave. “I’m assuming you’re not allowed to tell me what that investigation consists of?”</p><p>“No, milady, we’re not,” Ty answered.</p><p>“And, still, you require my help.”</p><p>Kit looked at Ash again, expecting some kind of sarcastic smirk, but the boy had a serious face and glinting eyes.</p><p>“Rosemary, if you allow me,” Ash cut in. “I think we can make an exception for these Centurions. I mean, this case is very serious, right?”</p><p>“Very, very serious,” the Shadowhunter agreed.</p><p>“Then, I’m sure a little help wouldn’t hurt. Maybe just rooms and supplies for both of them.” Ash shrugged.</p><p>Rosemary looked at him with raised eyebrows, then, turned to look at Kit, who nodded enthusiastically.</p><p>“No, I guess two rooms and a bit of safe food wouldn’t be too much trouble. Would that be good for you, Centurions?”</p><p>“That would be great,” Ty said.</p><p>“Then, guards, please guide them to their accommodations. I’m sure the ones in the north wing will be more than enough.”</p><p>…</p><p>The pizza the guards had gone to the mundane world to get was half-eaten and getting cold. The humid night stuck to Kit’s skin like jelly stuck to children’s fingers, and his stomach hurt from all the food and laughter.</p><p>“Okay, okay,” his mom said as Ash laughed at one of her old pictures. “That haircut was a bad idea, but it sure had personality.” She carefully folded the sleeves of her sweatshirt, balling up the hair strands that had stuck in the fabric and throwing them to the floor.</p><p>“Oh yeah, the personality of a sad hippie girl.” Kit sat up on the couch to get a lost olive in the empty half of the pizza box.</p><p>“Your dad liked it, though.”</p><p>“Was he a sad hippie boy? Because, if so, he might’ve been a bit biased.”</p><p>“Do not insult your father’s name. He was a respectful bad boy, Christopher, and I do not allow you to say otherwise.”</p><p>And that was why he liked those nights. Pizza. Old pictures. Christopher. If he was being honest with himself, he could live without junk food and his mom’s humiliation, but he would die without Christopher.</p><p>Again, it’s not that he minded the royal fey life. He didn’t. But, sometimes, when the moon shined bright up in the colorful sky, he admitted to himself he would do anything to throw ‘Kitfer’ in the trash.</p><p>Kitfer was a shitty prince, who had no idea of how to run a Kingdom. Ash was way more skilled at that. Ash was the one deserving of the crown, not him.</p><p>He had heard a legend, once. A legend that said there was a prophecy about his family, a prophecy about how the First Heir would lead the Fair Folk to ruins. His mom told him it was fake. He couldn’t get it off his mind.</p><p>“Talking about bad boys,” Ash started, smirking and playing with one of the edges of the grease-wet pizza box, “what did you think of those Nephilim, dear Kit?”</p><p>“I’m indifferent.”</p><p>His mom poked him as she got up and took off her boots, leaving them next to the coffee table. “We’re faeries, we’re not supposed to lie.”</p><p>“No, really. I’m completely indifferent.” His voice raised a few octaves as he unsuccessfully defended himself. “It’s Ash the one insisting to make them stay, why am I being accused?”</p><p>“Because I did it to annoy you, and later tell your mom about your face when you saw them.”</p><p>“What was his face?” she asked as she took the pizza box off the ground and put it on the table.</p><p>“Like this.” Ash widened his eyes and made his jaw drop a little, his eyebrows furrowing slightly. The perfect heart-eyes face.</p><p>Rosemary snickered as she sat back on the floor. “Oh wow, Kit, who was all that for? The ‘it would be a relief to let the Clave deal with this’ one, or the ‘your Court is made up of lying little shits, can you help us?’ one?”</p><p>“None of them,” Kit snapped. “I didn’t even make that face.”</p><p>Ash laughed. “Yeah, you did.”</p><p>“No, I didn’t.”</p><p>His mom raised both hands, shutting them up. “Boys, I don’t think this should turn into a discussion. If Kit is sexually attracted to Nephilim goths, we should let him be.”</p><p>Ash laughed harder, almost making Kit fume through his ears.</p><p>“I am not.”</p><p>Rosemary giggled. “C’mon, I was just kidding. I know you wouldn’t do anything like that. I mean, can you imagine a fey prince with a Nephilim consort? We would be sent to the guillotine.”</p><p>“Well, if Kit wouldn’t do anything like that, why don’t we let him take care of the investigation? I mean, I have a bunch of other things to do, and I don’t see why Kit couldn’t do it.”</p><p>“Trying to get rid of your duties, prince Ash?”</p><p>“My beloved Queen, I wouldn’t do anything like that. I just think it would be a nice opportunity for our prince Kitfer.”</p><p>“Fuck you,” Kit snapped. “Why do you always do this?”</p><p>“This what?”</p><p>“This… This whole—” Kit gestured at both him and Ash, “—sick power dynamics. I mean, what do you even get from this?”</p><p>“Boys, I think it’s getting la—”</p><p>“No, no, Rosemary.” Ash smiled. “It’s okay. I just thought it wouldn’t be difficult for Kit to do this work. I see now that I was wrong.”</p><p>And there he went again. Kit had the suspicion—no, the certainty, that Ash also knew he deserved the crown way more than Kit.</p><p>The Seelie and Unseelie Courts had been in decay long before Rosemary arrived, everybody knew that. When she revealed herself as the First Heir, most people were grateful for the change of leaders. As time passed, though, the Kingdom started to putrefy.</p><p>Kit was useless; Rosemary was narcissistic; Ash seemed like he wanted to watch the circus catching fire. Even with his sadistic ways, he was still the best shot the Kingdom had to thrive.</p><p>Kit huffed. “It’s not difficult, jackass.”</p><p>“Then why don’t you do it?”</p><p>“I’ll do it, then.”</p><p>“Okay.”</p><p>“Okay.”</p><p>Rosemary looked at both of them with a worried expression. “I think we should go to bed. C’mon, it’s getting late, and we have duties in the morning.”</p><p>Kit got up from the couch and left the room, banging the door on his way out.</p><p>…</p><p>“So, Centurion, what do you think of it?” Kit asked as they eyed the Shadowhunter corpse draped over the stretcher.</p><p>“I think it was fey magic,” Ty said.</p><p>Kit got closer to the body. It had a necklace if purple bruises, its wide-open eyes creeping him out more than he was willing to admit. “But they have hand marks on their neck. Why not strangulation?”</p><p>“The hands were just to stop them. I mean, their inner organs are literally glowing, so we can’t rule out magic either, can we?” the other boy, the one who wasn’t Ty, said as he poked a blue-shining liver.</p><p>“Oh,” Kit deadpanned, “that doesn’t happen usually?”</p><p>“I’m afraid not.” He extended his hand for Kit to shake and presented himself as Anush, he one helping Tiberius on the case. Kit decided he liked him instantly, and also gave him his name—his actual name, Kit, not terrible ‘Kitfer’.</p><p>“We weren’t supposed to have company,” Ty said as he shifted in his seat. He looks uncomfortable, Kit thought. “This is a secret Centurion case, no one’s allowed to investigate with us.”</p><p>Kit looked at both of them. Young faces, shaking hands as they handled the corpse and almost no scars in their exposed forearms.</p><p>“Did they really give this as your first case?” Their heads snapped to look at him. “I mean, it seems pretty complicated to me.”</p><p>“That’s the point,” Ty muttered. “It’s our ticket to graduation, we have to prove we’re worthy.”</p><p>“You’re not even graduated yet? Jeez.”</p><p>Anush tightly pressed his lips together and stopped poking the dead body. “That’s why our missions have to be secret. There’s a lot of stuff people shouldn’t know, both about the case and ourselves.”</p><p>Ty nodded at his statement.</p><p>“I’m sorry, boys, but our Queen Rosemary would never let anyone inside her Court without a chaperone. It’s either this or leave.”</p><p>Ty and Anush looked at each other with uncertain faces.</p><p>“Okay, but you can’t meddle into the case. If you know anything more, we’ll get expelled or something,” Anush sighed. “Please don’t make us get expelled.”</p><p>Kit raised both his hands in a peace offer. “I won’t. In fact, I was thinking about going upstairs for a second. You can—” he gesticulated at the corpse, “—finish this up, I’ll meet you later.”</p><p>He left the morgue and went up the staircase until he arrived at Ash’s room. He came inside without knocking, as he always did, and found Ash with his nose stuck in contractual papers.</p><p>“How am I supposed to supervise them,” he said as he got closer to Ash, “when I can’t know what they’re doing?”</p><p>Ash hummed without looking up from his work. “Is this another Shadowhunter bullcrap?”</p><p>“Something like that. It’s more specific to Centurions, I guess.”</p><p>“You’ll work it out just fine.”</p><p>“What I don’t understand is why you’re forcing this on me. We both know you’d be way better at this job.”</p><p>Correction: Ash would be way better at any job.</p><p>Ash smiled and looked at the floor. “I can’t be involved, Kitfer.”</p><p>Kit rolled his eyes at the name choice.</p><p>“And why can’t you be involved, Ashton?”</p><p>“That’s not my name.”</p><p>“Tough shit.”</p><p>They stared each other down for a few seconds until Ash sighed and answered, “I have some… suspicions. Suspicions that would put me in the line with both the Shadowhunters and the Court.”</p><p>“And you can’t tell me what those suspicions are?”</p><p>“Do you wanna be at risk too?”</p><p>“I just think,” Kit said as he walked closer to the door, “that it’s unfair to give this assignment to the more clueless one. God knows there are enough clueless people in it,” he added as he remembered the Centurions weren’t even graduated yet.</p><p>“I think you’ll do great, Kitfer.”</p><p>Kit opened the door and stepped out of the room. “Thanks, Asher.”</p><p>…</p><p>When Kit got in the morgue, the first thing he saw was Ty, with his shirt drenched with a glowing blue liquid. The next thing was Anush, who had a shocked face and a blue bladder squeezed between his hands.</p><p>“By the Angel, I’m so sorry, Ty,” Anush fretted. “Let me—” he dropped the bladder to rub a towel in Ty’s shirt, who dodged in time, looking a mixture of startled and disgusted.</p><p>“Do you want a new shirt?” Kit offered, not knowing what else to do.</p><p>Ty nodded quickly, his scared face not changing at all.</p><p>Kit led him to his room, where all he could find was a few t-shirts made with scratchy fabric. He handed one of them to Ty with an apologetic look, but he didn’t seem to mind much. He immediately took off his shirt and replaced it with the new one.</p><p>Kit turned away, blood running to his cheeks. He had thought Nephilim were a bit less shameless than that.</p><p>“Do you have other clues?” Kit asked as he eyed the door as if it were the most interesting thing he had ever seen.</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“Can you tell me them?”</p><p>“Not really.” Ty tapped on his shoulder, a signal that he could turn back again. “Do you know a place called the Wooden House?”</p><p>“Nope.”</p><p>Ty adjusted the belt around his waist, tucking the faerie shirt in. In a glimpse, Kit saw the handle of a carefully crafted knife. “It’s near the Grape Fields, apparently. We have to head there next.”</p><p>Kit pointed at his own chest. “Am I invited too?”</p><p>“I suppose so. We’re stuck with you, aren’t we?”</p><p>“No need to get upset,” he said. “I promise I can make great company.”</p><p>Ty flashed a grin. “You sure look like you do.”</p><p>…</p><p>For some reason, the dumb Nephilim denied the carriages. And the horses. And the servant fey that could carry them.</p><p>“We have to be discrete,” Ty had said. “There’s nothing discrete about people carrying us.”</p><p>Kit begrudgingly agreed, although his royal feet were not prepared for the walk at all.</p><p>When they arrived, he saw it. The house was surrounded by trees—orange, green, and yellow all mixed up in a palette that could only exist in Faerie.</p><p>It was huge, but decaying. Its wooden walls were rotten, vines curling on every edge. A hauntingly beautiful vision, with something unsettling about it. Something very unsettling.</p><p>But it could also just be his feet talking. They hurt like hell. Plus, he wasn’t wearing the proper shoes like the Shadowhunter boys. If I was a mundane, he thought bitterly, I would at least have sneakers on, instead of this leaf-made bullshit.</p><p>“Why are we even here?” he whined for what it felt like the hundredth time.</p><p>Ty turned to look at him while he drew a rune on the door to open it. “We already told you, we can’t say anything. But I promise this is relevant.”</p><p>Kit kept that on his mind throughout their search around the house. It’s relevant, he repeated in his head, even when his legs ached with the effort. It’s relevant.</p><p>However, Ty and Anush’s disappointment was clear on their face. Whatever they wanted to find, it wasn’t in that house. </p><p>The only moment of success was when Anush found a knife—very similar to the one Kit had seen in Ty’s belt—and his whole face lit up. Ty was quick to shut it down, though, saying that it wasn’t anything new.</p><p>When he put the knife back on the drawer that it was found in, Kit managed to get a better look at it.</p><p>There was something painfully familiar about the way the blade shined and the carvings on the handle twisted to form a beautiful picture—a flock of birds flying away from some contorted leaves.</p><p>He remembered seeing it somewhere. Somewhere around the castle, he was sure. Did the guards use them? Had he used them to train? Were they the knives that were stored in the kitchen but he couldn’t get close to?</p><p>“Kit?” Ty called from the other room. “Kit, are you coming? There’s a whole hallway we haven’t checked yet.”</p><p>Kit huffed and followed the Nephilim boys, exhaustion pulling him down.</p><p>After inspecting every centimeter of the house, all three of them settled their camping mattresses on the floor of what could be considered the living room.</p><p>They agreed on a patrol schedule, so everyone could sleep enough and the house would be protected. Anush took the short end of the stick and had to be the first one to patrol, leaving Kit and Ty alone.</p><p>As he was bending down to arrange his blanket, Kit tripped on his own feet and tumbled into his mattress.</p><p>“Are you okay?” Ty asked.</p><p>“I’m just fine,” Kit rushed.</p><p>“I thought the fey couldn’t lie.”</p><p>“I’m not fey.”</p><p>“Is that your problem?”</p><p>“I told you, I don’t have a problem,” he reinforced.</p><p>“No, you told me you were fine. Those are very different, don’t you think?”</p><p>Who did that Shadowhunter think he was? Sure, he could be the most beautiful person Kit had ever met, but that didn't mean he could run around assuming things about people.</p><p>Plus, that wasn't his issue. His issue was that, even though he liked to pretend, he sucked at his job and his life. He sucked at being a prince; his Kingdom was in ruins. Murder cases were happening and he couldn't know anything about them, because the Shadowhunters were taking care of it. He would rather be a mundane than a Kind One, but he couldn't tell that to anybody.</p><p>Or maybe he could.</p><p>Kit threw himself on the thin mattress, thinking. It wasn't like Ty would tell that to people. What did he have to lose?</p><p>“That’s not the problem. It’s just—” he sighed, “I’m not made to live in the court. I’m not Ash.”</p><p>Ty hummed. “Why don’t you leave?”</p><p>“Where would I go to?”</p><p>“You’re a legal adult in the mundane world. Why don’t you go there?”</p><p>Kit shook his head. He had already thought about it, of course he had, but he could never do that. “And what about my mom? I can’t leave her here.”</p><p>“I would,” Ty said quietly. “I did, actually. Leave my family. I still see them on my vacations, though.”</p><p>“You left them to become a Centurion?”</p><p>“Yep,” he confirmed. “It’s my dream since I was a kid.”</p><p>“Do you ever regret it?”</p><p>Ty stayed silent for a few seconds. Kit turned over on his mattress to look at him. His eyes were closed, which Kit would mourn if it weren’t for the given chance of staring at his face without him noticing.</p><p>“Sometimes,” Ty whispered. “When I think about my sister.”</p><p>“You miss her?”</p><p>“All the time.” Ty’s eyebrows furrowed, and Kit closed his eyes as well, fearing Ty could open his.</p><p>“But you see her on your vacations, right?”</p><p>Ty made a pause. “She’s dead, Kit.”</p><p>“Oh.” Kit felt really dumb then. “Oh, I’m so sorry.”</p><p>“And I could’ve saved her.” Kit opened his eyes again. He couldn’t handle hearing that much pain in Ty’s voice and not looking at him. “But I was in Scholomance, studying.” Ty sighed. “When I remember that, I regret it.”</p><p>Kit decided not to say anything. There was nothing left to say but ‘I would too’, and that didn’t seem very comforting.</p><p>“But that’s not gonna happen to you.” Ty opened his eyes and, for a sliver of a second, looked right at Kit’s, but soon after diverted their course. “Your mom isn’t going to die, and neither will Ash. Well, if they do, it’s not like you would be able to help them anyway.”</p><p>Kit snorted. Yeah, Ty was right.</p><p>“So you think I should just escape and leave everything? I thought Shadowhunters were against cowardice.”</p><p>“It’s not cowardice,” Ty argued. “It’s self-preservation.”</p><p>“Isn’t that usually the same thing?”</p><p>Ty propped himself up on one elbow. “So, you believe that all brave people are self-destructive?”</p><p>“I’m not sure about all brave people,” Kit said. “But all the ones I met, yes.”</p><p>Ty snorted. “Me too.” </p><p>…</p><p>The tapestries hanging on the walls were out of focus. In fact, everything was out of focus, fuzzy, and hazy. But he could identify the training room, and next to it was the kitchen. No, wait, the kitchen wasn’t next to the training room. The space there quickly morphed into the stone hallway it was supposed to be. </p><p>Ash was in front of him, the knife in his hand glinting under the moonlight. They were fighting, but Kit couldn’t distinguish his movements from Ash’s. It was a blur of limbs and snarky words, but, for some reason, he could see the knife perfectly—its shining blade, and, of course, the handle carved with leaves and a flock of birds, that then Kit could recognize as crows.</p><p>Oh. So that's where it had come from. Ash.</p><p>As Kit was lost in the trance of worrying about reality, Ash charged at him, his heavy boots stomping on the floor, and stuck the knife in Kit's stomach.</p><p>After he died, Kit woke up sweating and gasping for breath.</p><p>The night, like most nights in Faerie Land, was humid, only worsening the sweat dripping down his forehead. The whole room was empty, and, although Kit rationally knew it was Ty’s patrol time and Anush would probably be there soon, he was trembling with fear.</p><p><em>That happens after nightmares</em>, Kit repeated in his head. <em>You’re scared, doesn’t mean it’s real.</em></p><p>He tried as best as he could to shake the nightmare away, thinking about everything that had happened that day.</p><p>If anything, he was a bit proud of himself.</p><p>He was doing well on the job, not letting the Shadowhunters destroy his land. Those were quite the tame Shadowhunters, too.</p><p>His mind went straight back to the conversation he had with Ty. He could leave, if he wanted. That was a choice, Ty had assured him it was. Ty seemed to know a lot.</p><p>“Hey, Anush?” he called when he heard the sound of his heavy Shadowhunter shoes. “When did you meet Ty?”</p><p>“When did I…” Anush kneed down to arrange his blankets, preparing himself to sleep. “I think it was in our second year or something. I remember he had passed out because of some injury and I took care of Irene for him.”</p><p>“Irene?”</p><p>“That’s his Carpathian Lynx. He had found her on the school grounds and adopted her.”</p><p>“He likes animals, then?”</p><p>That could be interesting.</p><p>“Likes them? Oh no, he adores them.” Anush lied down on his mattress and yawned. Kit knew he shouldn’t be keeping him up, but he couldn’t control his curiosity. “Animals are his thing, you know?”</p><p>“Not really.”</p><p>Anush cracked a smile. “Yeah, to be honest, me neither. I was never one for animals, much less if they're lynxes. Much less if they're Irene, that devilish cat."</p><p>"Is there anything else he's interested in?"</p><p>Kit liked to hear about Ty, he decided. It distracted him from everything else. Plus, it would give him a headstart on how to talk to him next time.</p><p>"He loves Sherlock Holmes. Well, he loves a lot of detectives, but especially Sherlock Holmes."</p><p>"Never heard of him."</p><p>"I hadn't either, but Ty borrowed me the books. Hey, maybe he'll borrow them to you, too." Anush turned to him with an excited face, but, as he took Kit in, it fell down. "That's if we ever see each other again. Because you're fey, living in Faerie, and we're—" Anush widened his eyes. "By the angel. You're fey. I shouldn't have told you all that."</p><p>Kit snickered at him. "Don't worry, I won't do anything with that information."</p><p>Anush signed in relief and came back to smile. "Okay, then. Good night, Kit."</p><p>"Good night, Anush."</p><p>…</p><p>Kit did try to sleep, but there was something about Ty that was nagging on his brain. He couldn’t exactly point it out, there was nothing about him that wasn’t cohesive. Maybe that was the problem. Ty was too cohesive.</p><p>It was something about his energy, his aura, as hippie as that sounded. It was like he had magic sizzling under his skin, although he was a regular Shadowhunter.</p><p>Kit got up from the ground he was lying on, dodging all the stuff they had thrown beside their mattresses. He headed outside, where Ty was sitting on a rock, looking at the rapidly changing sky.</p><p>“Shouldn't you be sleeping?” Ty asked as Kit sat next to him.</p><p>“Couldn’t.”</p><p>Ty nodded. “I’m sorry, I know this isn’t the type of stuff fey princes do in their spare time.”</p><p>“It isn’t,” he agreed. “That doesn’t mean it’s bad.”</p><p>It surely wasn’t, not when he was just sitting on a rock next to a cute boy.</p><p>“What do you usually do, then?”</p><p>“Ah, you know.” Kit gesticulated to the forest and fields in front of them. “I just hang around and ignore all the shit that’s going down in Faerie.”</p><p>“Would your family even think about the murder cases had we not arrived?”</p><p>“Probably not.” ‘Probably’ was just a way to soften it up. They definitely wouldn’t think about it. “Do you think we’re a bad royal family?”</p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>Kit laughed at his honesty. Yes, he also thought they were bad. It wasn’t like the previous kind and queen were much better, though.</p><p>But that didn’t mean they were excused of their actions. People were dying, getting hurt and tortured, all kinds of bad stuff happened in Faerie. </p><p>His mom said that that’s the way it was, and they couldn’t do anything about it. Kit always thought, if not even the royal family can do anything, who could? Their Kingdom was crashing and burning, it had been for a long time now.</p><p>They sat there in comfortable silence for a couple minutes. The sun was just beginning to rise, the day becoming lighter by the second.</p><p>“And you? What do you do in your free time, fellow Centurion?”</p><p>“I read. A lot. My favorite book is—”</p><p>“Sherlock Holmes.” Kit nodded.</p><p>“How do you know that?”</p><p>Oh. Fuck. “I— Well— Well, you know, I—”</p><p>“You asked Anush.” Ty was looking at him with complete incredulity. “Why did you ask Anush that?”</p><p>Well, it appeared that Ty was, in fact, a great detective. Kit shouldn’t have been worried at all.</p><p>“I wanted to get to know you better.” He shrugged.</p><p>“You could’ve asked me.”</p><p>“I will, next time.”</p><p>It was a promise. A promise there would be a next time.</p><p>Kit looked at Ty, noticing how he winced and scrunched his eyes at the sun, always trying to be on the shadow.</p><p>He understood it, because, although Ty was the most beautiful Shadowhunter to ever live, he became even more stunning under the moon. Some people are just made to live in the night, and Ty was one of them.</p><p>The sun was particularly strong that day, too. Kit could feel the heat so close to him like they were inside an oven. It never got that hot in Faerie, especially not in the sunrise.</p><p>That’s when he realized; maybe it wasn’t the sun.</p><p>He turned around only to see flames licking up every inch of the Wooden House, the trees around it falling and turning into ashes.</p><p>Ty muttered, “Anush,” before sprinting down the path to save his friend. Kit just stayed there, watching another piece of his Kingdom get destroyed.</p><p>...</p><p>“Guys, I don’t think we’ll ever find them,” said Anush as he cleaned the last of the ashes on his gear. “I mean, they can be miles away from us.”</p><p>Kit was inclined to agree, but there was a possibility that it was just his aching feet talking. If he knew that hanging out with Shadowhunters would be just unnecessary walking, he would’ve never signed up for it.</p><p>Oh yeah. He didn’t.</p><p>Ty paused his nervous humming to offer, “Maybe we should get back to the house.” He was fluttering his hands and squeezing a little plushie of a bee. He did that an awful lot, especially when they had a big break on the case; either good or bad. “The arsonist might want to cover their tracks, or someone else might go there and get hurt.”</p><p>“We’re too far, though,” Kit pointed out. “It’s another full day for us to get back there. I think we should find somewhere to sleep while it’s still light.”</p><p>The Shadowhunters agreed, and soon they found a good place in the middle of the forest to settle the blanket-made tent.</p><p>“Kit, can you get my stele?” Ty asked, pointing at his bag on some tree branch.</p><p>Kit nodded and opened the bag's zipper. Inside, there was an organized pile of camping supplies, food, and Nephilim weapons. Crumpled over it, was a pink paper stained with blood.</p><p>It was a pamphlet, hand-written, and with a badly drawn map in one corner. In big and bold letters, Kit could clearly read '<em><strong>Come to the Wooden House. The New Kingdom has done enough for us—it's time to give back</strong></em>'. </p><p>In the other margin, there was the emblem of his mother's reign—a few rosemary leaves twirled around a crown—with a red x crossed over it.</p><p>It was an anti-New Kingdom pamphlet. That's what they were doing in the Wooden House, searching for signs of a killer where a group of people wanted to take his throne away.</p><p>Did the Shadowhunters think the killer was one of the members or were the members getting killed? Was he guilty for it?</p><p>Kit's brain was clogging up, fear for his mom, and hate for these people blinding him. But he couldn't feel that; his people had a reason to hate him. His family plainly sucked at being royal. But how dare they? How dare they team up against all his mom fought so hard for?</p><p>"Kit?" Ty called. "Kit, did you find it?"</p><p>"Yeah", he answered with his hoarse voice, taking the stele in his hands. "Yeah, I just got distracted."</p><p>They set up camp as the bright stars came to vision in the sky. Sleeping in the middle of the woods was never safe, especially in Faerie. Especially when you are a prince, hated by all your people.</p><p>Kit kept himself a bit quieter; set up his mattress a bit further away than he normally would. He couldn’t stand to look at the Shadowhunters who hadn't told him he would be thrown out the throne.</p><p>He couldn’t stand to look at Ty, who had encouraged him to leave the royal life. It all made sense now; Ty knew about the movement. He knew Kit was worthless in the grand scheme of Faerie history.</p><p>But Kit had the blood of both the past Seelie Queen and Unseelie Queen, blood so old and powerful the Shadowhunters couldn’t even imagine—he wouldn’t give up the crown for just a little bit of fuss.</p><p>…</p><p>They woke up in the early morning ready to get back to the Wooden House.</p><p>Needless to say, he walked a bit more distant than usual. Kit had to think about what he had to do, what he could do, and what he was doing. And they were all very difficult things to think about.</p><p>The path turned out to be shorter than expected, his feet already getting used to the physical effort.</p><p>As they got closer to the house, the treetops got denser, the woods becoming darker. Their feet crunched the leaves and branches on the floor, and Kit could hear his blood rushing to his head.</p><p>And that was when someone screamed.</p><p>Kit turned back immediately, thinking it could’ve been Ty or Anush, but both Shadowhunters already had their seraph swords in hand and were running toward the direction of the noise.</p><p>Following the fighting sounds, they dodged trees until they arrived at a clearing, were a fey girl was bleeding on the ground, and a hooded person rushed to the trees, efficiently getting away from them.</p><p>"The boots," Ty pointed out to Anush. "Did you see the boots?"</p><p>Anush looked at him completely baffled. "Why would I look at the boots?"</p><p>"You see, but you do not observe." Ty straightened up and smiled, his hands fluttering in excitement. "I think we were right, Anush. I think we just got our graduation."</p><p>…</p><p>“But we already know who it is!” yelled Anush for the fifth time.</p><p>“We don’t,” repeated Ty. “I just have a very good lead. That’s not enough. Not for this case.”</p><p>Ty had gone to extreme happiness to extreme skepticism in less time than it took for them to walk over to the body. It was a good clue, but it was still uncertain, he had said.</p><p>“But what if…” Anush looked at Kit, who was sitting on a rock and trying not to sleep. “What if the killer escapes because we stayed here? We aren’t graduating this way.”</p><p>Ty looked conflicted, his hands squeezing the hell out of that plushie he carried. Kit felt an urge to hold him and calm him down, but he sat still on his rock. It wasn't his place. “And what if someone comes here and gets hurt because we wanted to follow our hunch?”</p><p>Anush sighed and looked away as if searching for some divine intervention.</p><p><em>Where’s your angel now?</em> Kit wanted to ask, but chose to shut up. It was not the time for teasing.</p><p>“You can stay here,” Anush decided, still looking at the horizon like a sad singer in a boy band. “I’m going to the castle.”</p><p>“But we aren’t supposed to—”</p><p>“I know,” he interrupted Ty. “I know. But I think it’s the smartest thing to do.”</p><p>Ty nodded and, when Anush got closer, he draped himself over him and gave him a tight hug.</p><p>“Be careful,” he said.</p><p>“You too.”</p><p>…</p><p>Kit and Ty set up camp on the remains of the Wooden House. They stayed silent. For a long time.</p><p>Kit knew Ty was thinking about Anush, the Centurions, and graduation. Maybe, even a little bit, about the body rotting in the middle of the forest.</p><p>And the body was all Kit could think about. Another piece of his Kingdom, along with other Kind Ones and even the Wooden House, had been wrecked.</p><p>When the mattresses were on the floor and the tent was up, Kit’s throat started burning with the urge to cry. He broke down, with ragged breathing, and holding his knees, rocking his body from one side to another.</p><p>Kit tried to calm down, but he couldn’t.</p><p>He couldn't, because it was all his fault, his Kingdom was dying because of him. He sucked, and his mom, who had worked so hard to be seen as a good queen, sucked too.</p><p>The prophecy was right all along.</p><p>“What’s wrong?” Ty asked softly as he cleaned Kit’s tear-streaked cheeks.</p><p>Kit thought about pushing Ty away, but his body didn’t obey. It had been too long since somebody last touched him like that. It had been too long since someone last saw him crying.</p><p>“My Kingdom is falling apart, isn’t it?” Kit whispered through tears.</p><p>Ty looked away, avoiding the question. It didn’t matter, Kit already knew the answer.</p><p>“I’m afraid for them, Ty,” he mumbled. “I’m afraid for my mother and for Ash. And for my people, even if they hate me.”</p><p>Ty pulled him close, squeezing tight. Kit sobbed, letting down all the tears he had been holding for so long. Ty rubbed his back soothingly, then dragged his fingers through Kit’s scalp. Kit shivered and got even closer.</p><p>“No one’s ever done that to me,” he whispered.</p><p>“Ever?”</p><p>He shook his head carefully in response, afraid that Ty would stop. He didn’t.</p><p>Both of them slept like that, under the colorful skies in Faerie, entangled with each other and believing, for one second, that there wasn’t anything but them in the world.</p><p>…</p><p>"Kit," Ty called as he shook him awake, "Kit, we have to go. Now."</p><p>Ty was holding a flower with a little paper attached to it. Someone had sent a message.</p><p>Kit stretched himself awake, allowing a yawn to come out. "What's going on?"</p><p>"It's Anush. He says he's sure. We found the assassin."</p><p>...</p><p>The walk back to the castle was even more exhaustive than the first time. It didn’t help that Kit kept tripping, too distracted glancing at Ty to notice the rocks on the road. </p><p>The previous night had been the first time someone had held him like that. It had been the first time for a lot of stuff.</p><p>Kit couldn’t help but feel a bit shy. What was Ty thinking? Did he think Kit was weak? Did he think Kit was being dramatic? He shook his head, trying to send his thoughts away. It did no good for him to think and not ask. </p><p>“I saw the flyer.”</p><p>Ty turned to look at him with a curious face. “What flyer?”</p><p>“The anti-New Kingdom one. The one that’s in your bag.”</p><p>“Oh.” Ty nodded. “When did you see it?”</p><p>“When you asked me to grab your stele; it was by accident. I didn’t look at anything else, though.”</p><p>“That’s okay.”</p><p>They stayed silent for a few seconds. Ty didn’t seem upset with Kit for snooping around his bag, nor for seeing something that could compromise the mission. Kit assumed it was because they had already found the culprit, so it didn’t matter anymore.</p><p>Or maybe Ty didn’t care about him, simple and plain. Surely he would’ve said something if he cared about how Kit felt. His Kingdom was falling apart, for god’s sake, of course he was upset. If Ty didn’t say anything, it was because he thought Kit was overreacting. And maybe he was, a little bit.</p><p>“How much do you think my people hate me?” Kit asked.</p><p>Even if Ty didn’t give a fuck about him, he needed to know.</p><p>“I don’t think they hate you,” Ty said. “I do think they hate your mom, though.”</p><p>Oh yes, they hated Kit’s mom alright. Kit knew that, but he had never done anything to fix what his mother had broken. Didn’t that make him even more detestable? “But I could be a better prince.”</p><p>“It’s not your responsibility, Kit.” Ty turned his gaze back to the horizon. Kit had to disagree; he didn’t do anything for his Kingdom, ever. Ty just saw the best in people, even when they didn’t have a particularly enhanced best. “I think you care. That’s more than a lot of people I know.”</p><p>“Do you think I’m weak?” Kit asked, surprising even himself. Too much for discretion, huh, Christopher.</p><p>“Why do you care so much about what I think?”</p><p>“Maybe I look up to you.”</p><p>Ty chuckled. “No, I don’t think you’re weak.”</p><p>“Then why did you hold me last night?”</p><p>He bit his lip as if thinking about it. If it were any other Shadowhunter, Kit would assume he was coming up with a lie. Ty didn’t seem to be someone who lied, though. “Because even strong people deserve comfort.”</p><p>Kit stopped dead in his tracks. He felt a sudden rush of affection for Ty—so intense and, yet, so fragile, like it would break the second either of them spoke another word.</p><p>And that was why Kit didn’t say anything, just grabbed Ty by the lapels of his Centurion uniform and kissed him.</p><p>Ty tangled his fingers in Kit's hair, much like he had done the night before, and Kit couldn't help but melt against him.</p><p>His lips were soft, careful, like he was afraid to frighten Kit. No one had ever been so caring with him.</p><p>"We barely know each other," Kit whispered against his mouth.</p><p>"I was hoping we could fix that," Ty whispered back.</p><p>…</p><p>The moment Ty found Anush, they headed to their rooms on the North wing and left Kit by himself, wandering through the castle.</p><p>He didn't have any troubles with that, since the fuzzy cloud Ty had put him on was starting to dissipate, and much more real problems were becoming apparent. Problems like hunger.</p><p>He walked to the kitchen, letting his fingers run through the walls and furniture, feeling very pleased with himself. </p><p>He had kissed a <em>Shadowhunter</em>. No, scratch that, he had kissed <em>Ty</em>, who meant way more than any normal Shadowhunter.</p><p>When he got to the kitchen, though, food was the last thing on his mind. The stench made Kit's nose burn, his stomach turning as he analyzed the scene.</p><p>It was Ash's dead body, thrown on the floor like a bag of potatoes.</p><p>Kit looked down at it. The wounds were bleeding and glowing, his green eyes were wide open. </p><p>Kit knew that, somewhere, there was supposed to be sadness in his heart. All he could feel, though, was a cold sort of detachment, one where he could see that Ash was just another piece of a chess game going down. And there were going to be others.</p><p>When Ty and Anush arrived at the scene, he was still standing over the corpse. <em>Hopefully, they won’t think it was me</em>, Kit thought.</p><p>And they didn’t. According to Ty, it couldn’t have been him. Normally, he would’ve asked why, but he didn’t want to make it worse for his case.</p><p>As Kit drank the tea Anush had given him, Rosemary barged into the room. Her bloodshot eyes ran through the scene, and her white-knuckled hands held a letter in a tight grip.</p><p>“What’s that?” Kit asked, nodding to the crumpled paper.</p><p>“An intimation,” Ty answered for her. “Rosemary, Queen of the New Kingdom, you’re under arrest by the will of the Council and the Centurions of Scholomance.”</p><p>Anush gripped her wrists and took her out of the room. Her chin was held high, her posture straight despite being manhandled by a Nephilim. Kit hopped on the counter, watching everything with great nonchalance. It wasn’t like anything mattered anymore.</p><p>“You’re technically the king now,” Ty stated as he got closer to Kit and fit himself in between his legs.</p><p>Kit hummed in response. He didn’t want to think about that.</p><p>Ty cupped Kit’s head and put it over his shoulder, right on the crook of his neck. He ran his fingers through Kit’s hair, just like he did on the night they camped outside, and stayed silent for a couple minutes.</p><p>“Faerie Kings aren't allowed to have Nephilim consorts,” Kit mumbled over Ty’s shirt.</p><p>“I think we can fix that.”</p><p>“Yeah, I also think so.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>For deeper understanding, imagine Rosemary wearing ugly Ugg boots</p><p>Leave some comments or kudos if you like this, it would make my day :)</p><p>Thank you so much for reading!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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